From Paul Currion's blog comes news of a new organisation to design ICT solutions for humanitarian field work called Humanlink.

The Humanlink Mission

As veteran aid workers, we have experienced the frustration of responding to an emergency, only to find ourselves faced with the burden of first having to establish our own communications networks so that we could begin to coordinate the arrival of much needed aid. There is little communication and technology support for frontline aid organizations, and the result is diminished capacity and a delayed response. With a growing demand for adequate technologies, there is a need for an organization capable of supporting the activities and missions of numerous international humanitarian aid organizations.

Humanlink was created to fill this need, specifically to bring technology solutions and technical expertise to bear on the world's most pressing humanitarian situations. Through a core group of aid industry experts and a dedicated network of volunteers, Humanlink strives to improve the efficacy of our fellow aid organizations and meet the growing technology demands of the aid industry and the communities they serve.

Humanlink plans to focus on a number of areas:

1. Emergency telecommunications and IT support. Deployment of field teams with requisite equipment to natural disasters and other relevant situations to establish communications networks and to assist in building the technological capacity of aid organizations on the ground.
2. Development of technologies to assist aid groups in their quest for more efficient systems by which to manage their activities. Specifically, Humanlink aims to develop network optimization(Squid proxy), GIS (Geographic Information Systems) , VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) technologies for use by fellow aid organizations. We believe that such technologies will prove invaluable to the aid community.
3. Long term development and training on software and technologies. By bringing valuable proven technology and training to areas deprived of such technologies, Humanlink can positively impact the livelihoods and economic standing of local populations.

As the world's reliance on technology grows, we believe that applications such as web development, 3D animation, film editing, and sound engineering software all hold promise as platforms on which less advantaged populations can build businesses and professions.

Read more on their website .